The last year of running thebestofnetflix.com has been really fun – so fun in fact that it has inspired me to start a second blog.

This time, with streamingfruit.com I’ll be focusing my writing on iTunes related news and content, discussing new movies, TV and occasionally music that has been added to the iTunes streaming library. Over the course of the next few months you will likely see a lot of annoying tweets and shameless promotion of my newest content venture, so just a fair warning.

I’ll definitely be looking for contributors, so if you are looking to write about movies and television, please do give me a shout as I’d love to have you.

Got any ideas for another blog? I’m already thinking a few months in advance to try and figure out what might come next. Unfortunately my good buddy Luke already nabbed a Hulu blog, so I’ll have to think of something outside of that…

Recently the tech world has been exploding in anger over Microsoft’s newest 365 campaign and what it encourages. People have also been taking to the internet complaining about how Microsoft is misguided in it’s promotional efforts here, but I completely disagree.

Sure, it’s an absolutely terrible thing in reality; encouraging people to work around the clock, never putting their phone down, ignoring their children to respond to an email, etc… But the fact of the matter is, it’s a really effective campaign.

Microsoft isn’t marketing this product to the actual workers on display in these ads. This is directed specifically toward decision makers and folks who hold the purse strings. The people who want to squeeze every penny out of their workforce.

Think of it this way: these images plant the seed in the mind of management that, “Hey, with Office 365, there is no excuse for my team to NOT be able to do a quick bit of work late at night or during their kid’s soccer game!”

This sells.

So… sure, Microsoft might be at fault for encouraging this as a possibility and the reality of that is a nasty thought, but the campaign is simply communicating a very clear message to the people who are going to pull the trigger on “365” culture. Those people are the ones to blame.

According to Webmaster Tools, there are currently 31 separate domains referencing my site, mostly the homepage and the occasional article. The map of countries where Netflix is available has done particularly well.

This new project of mine will be a place where I’ll be reviewing my favorite Netflix content as well as curating best of lists and opening discussion with regards to the great original content that Netflix has been continually working toward releasing.

I’ll definitely be looking for help, so if you have anything to add, by all means let me know!

Sometimes people search the internet and do not find what they are looking for. My good friend, Ami Juel was unable to find a picture of a bird wearing a tucked in shirt so, as any good content marketer would, I CREATED that content for her!

You see, good content marketing is about creating what people want. So here you have it… A bird wearing a dress shirt. It’s rather cute, don’t you think?

There seems to still be a lot of confusion on how to properly communicate on Twitter.

I’m not talking about social norms or how to be a Twitter guru/rock star/enlightened individual; this is more specific than that.

Not a day goes by where I don’t see people misunderstand how to tweet directly at someone versus how to publicly reply.

Exhibit A – The Direct Tweet:

In the above example, the only people who can see those tweets are people who follow both me and the person I am tweeting at. Anyone who only follows me will not see that tweet in their public stream. They can click on my profile and see the tweet in my personal stream, but it will not stream publicly. DO NOT CONFUSE THIS FOR BEING A PRIVATE MESSAGE!!! Many a political career has been ruined by various dick pics being sent via this method thought to be private.

If you’re sending pics of your junk, please send them only via “DM.” But even then, it’s probably best to avoid altogether.

Exhibit B – The Public Tweet:

You might be looking at example B and are thinking… “But Rob, that looks almost identical to exhibit A! What could possibly be different?”

That teeny little “.” before the @username makes all the difference in the world.

This tweet is now visible to anyone that follows me in the public stream. It doesn’t matter what symbol you choose, but the period is most common.

Common uses for this:

Giving someone public attention

Shaming someone publicly

Recap:

This compliment to @stentontoledo, while always welcome, will not complete it’s intended purpose! Clearly this person wants to direct more people toward my amazing Twitter account, but alas has failed because the only people who will see that are already following both of us.

This tweet will do the trick! Note the small period that allows the tweet to stream to all of your followers who will flock like the salmon of Capistrano to my Twitter account.

Looking for some practice? Feel free to shoot some tweets my way and I will critique them rigorously.

I’m not much of a snake oil salesman, however, I figured out a way to rank #1 on Google, guaranteed. I’m so sure of my new system that I’m not even going to charge for this excellent advice.

I have no idea who these people are, but they seem legit!

First, you’re going to need a website. Any website will do, but it will need to be yours, as studies have shown it is unlikely your website will rank in the SERPs if, in fact, you do not actually have a site.

Got one set up? Great… keep reading.

Second, you’ll need to create a new page or blog post. Make sure you don’t accidentally noindex it; that will void all the warranties and guarantees that come with this advice.

Third, type seven random words on this page, ideally with proper HTML. The key is they have to be random, no sentences, no long tail search terms, no phrases, nothing but gibberish.

Examples:

Banana chalk prototype fighter grainy periwinkle horn

Alphabet beta plausibility gorilla cereal telephone tripping

Fun ripped quasar yellow nostalgic crisis zipper

Documentation forking heater baseball radio government mouse

Point a link from the homepage of your website toward this new page with the exact phrase as the hyperlink text. Once again, double check you’re not noindexing the page, or nofollowing this link.